SU to MAX 7 Thought process?

Matte · 6 Jun 2010, 23:19

Hi All,
I could not find my similar SU to 3DS thread. I never got to thank earthmover for his advice on how to export from SU to MAX, your way worked, thanks!

Now that I think I can export "properly" I would like to know if someone could clarify the meathod of construction I am guessing to be the "best" way. And let me know what ideas of mine are not "correct"? Here is the project and my meathod of construction:

I am creating an entire airport with buildings and environment (It's quite large 50 Megs so far, and I am just beginning.) I am useing MAX V7 to get a better/smoother fly thru then I can seam to get with SU, and hopefully better rendering as well.

I am presently have the SU model seperated into many parts that are xref'ed with TIG's wonderfull xref ruby. I take each Part/building/etc. make a new copy and go thru and strip out all non crutial data/faces/etc. Once clean I export it into max. Max is still quite difficult for me to grasp so I do as much as I can in SU.

It looks like Max 7 allows xrefs, so I plan to make one master Xref file from each of the parts. It worked great in SU, I hope it works as well with MAX? Then I can just xref each new building as I create them?

Thanks for any advice, I would hate to go down the wrong path too far on a project that I expect to take a few years to complete, mostly from the MAX learning curve. Thanks Again to all.

thecravatman · 7 Jun 2010, 17:51

Hi Matte
Max 2010 & 2011 have an excellent import/linking system for Sketchup that overcomes all of the problems that I have had with faces and the like over the last few years. Its called connection extensions "Sketchup Importer". Try it I think that it will save you a lot of time and pain.
I hope that helps.
T

Matte · 12 Jun 2010, 14:05

Thanks thecravetman,
Unfortunatly I only have the opertunity to use Max Ver. 7. For the first time in my life I have been unemployed, for over 9 months now! and all money is being spent to keep us from becoming homeless. I think I will have to give up Architecture and try something different? The face problem did not seam to cause me much problems "so far", as long as I have all the faces in the correct direction befor export from SU. I was more thinking about the overall train of thought that goes into putting togather a large/complex project. In the past after many months of work I have often found that the way I have "put things togeter" was not as efficient as it should have been and I have to backtrack to make things more clear. I believe it is better to think through the big picture of what I am making first before randomly putting all the pieces togather? Max Ver 7 is probably a lot slower, but I expect this "Project" to be one of those that I work on here and there when I can over the next few years, it's quite a big undertaking for a "just for fun project". I was hoping to be clear on the proper thought process to eliminate as much back tracking from incorrect construction. My self taught MAX time is very limited, so I figure the learning curve will be extended quite a bit. Thanks again for your reply.
Matte

thecravatman · 15 Jun 2010, 20:51

Sorry to hear of tough times. Can I suggest Vue as they do a free version. SU Vue Max make a great team for when you get the resources. Cheers T

Matte · 18 Jun 2010, 02:45

Thanks Cravatman,
I'll check Vue out! In the mean time I'll just keep working with the MAX version I have access to. And thanks for the good wishes, It worked, I just got a job a few hours ago!
Matte

thecravatman · 18 Jun 2010, 19:53

Great news good luck with the new post!